Scrum Master Project Manager

Mary Nawab Agile Coach/ Scrum Master

Email: ****.*****@*****.*** 703-***-****

SUMMARY

Mary is a (Secret Clearance for DOS, DOD / Public Trust-cleared for DHS) ITAgile Coach/Scrum Manager with experience and success in helping clients optimize investments. She has demonstrated skills in analyzing current market conditions, understanding industry trends, and recommending the most appropriate courses of action for clients and partner companies. She is able to build strong, sustainable relationships with internal and external individuals. Mary consistently performs effectively under high-pressure situations while maintaining the highest ethical standards.

EXPERIENCE

Senior IT Technical Project Manager Angayut (FarWest) Nov 2024-Current

In this position, I am supporting the Procurement Forecasting Tool which promotes opportunities suitable for small business by offering a comprehensive view of upcoming procurement activities, This enables industry partners to stay ahead in the competitive landscape of government contracting by providing them with access to forecasted procurement opportunities by the U.S. Department of State. My role supporting this initiative is to provide to PMO support at an executive level industry best practices to guide through continuous iteration/continuous delivery and deployment of features and enhancements. Drafting communications strategy and planning, executive task level Gantt charts, reviewing gaps in a MOU's for updates to user stories and testing plans with testing feedback.

Scrum Master/Agile Coach Take2 Oct 2022-June 2024

In this position, I facilitated SAFe agile practices for several teams supporting the DOD Advana initiative as well as the Service Desk platform. I managed the scrum ceremonies and assisted with on-boarding and coordinated meetings as needed. I worked with management and team members to make sure that any impediments are tracked and removed as well as participated with projects/initiatives. Assisted with increment planning and established level of efforts of the team by quarters and provide a roadmap of approved work initiatives and estimated completed timeframes.

My duties included: overseeing the agile processes and ensuring we are using best practices, assisting in managing the several backlogs and tracking progress, working to update and manage several scrum teams, working to configure and build the backlogs for current initiatives, arrange meetings and remove impediments the team may encounter and provide guidance where needed, conduct sprint reviews and retrospectives, as well as refinement sessions. Created both Scrum and Kanban boards, multiple dashboards, Confluence pages for communication and documentation storage. Also, established a better communications plan for responses to work requests and inquiries so as not to leave gaps of needed work or output from the team.

Scrum Master/Agile Lead Coach/Senior Consultant MAXIMUS (merged w/Attain) Mar 2020- Oct 2022

While working here, I facilitated SAFe agile practices for several teams of 40+ members while supporting the USCIS Modernized DevSecOps and Analytics II project. This included updating to cloud infrastructure. I managed the scrum ceremonies and assisted with on-boarding and coordinated meetings as needed. Worked as the Release Train Manager for my assigned initiatives while coordinating with management and team members to make sure that any impediments are tracked and removed as well as participated continuous development/continuous delivery enhancements and deployments.

My duties included: overseeing the agile processes and ensuring we were using best practices, working to update and manage scrum teams, configure and build the backlogs for current initiatives, coordinate and oversees deployments and provided communications on releases. Assist with program planning and determine the level of effort by the team for the upcoming quarters and provide a roadmap of approved work initiatives and proposed to be completed timeframes. Arranged meetings and removed impediments the team may encounter and provided guidance and training where needed. Conducted sprint reviews and retrospectives and documented communications/reports as required and requested.

Product Manager/Scrum Master U Group (formerly Bytecubed) Aug 2015- Jan 2020

Managed and maintained the DOD Small Business and Workforce portals in support of the Warfighter. This involved coordinating Broad Agency Announcements throughout the year to offer topics for small businesses to submit proposals. DOD Component stakeholders rely on the Workforce portal to review submitted proposals and post awards. Working with our stakeholders to enhance both portals to include new functionality in support of their needs and to also work in keeping small businesses informed of their proposals.

My duties included: setting lean agile methodologies implementation and coaching team members on best practices; managing several scrum and kanban backlogs, set priorities for the teams work, working with developers with AWS Cloud upgrades, as well as sending communications to both product and technical teams. Continually tested the portals for current functionality as well as new features to be added. Conducted continual deployments based on cycles of the bidding process and portal maintenance and upgrades. Having direct communication with multiple government stakeholders with a vested interest in the SBIR/STTR portals, I was able to drive requirements gathering sessions, provide demonstrations of current and proposed functionality and get feedback as to what is needed and set priorities.

Created user guides on how to navigate the SBIR/STTR portals and being able to provide overviews of this system at conferences and training seminars is a great way to help both small business and government components use the portals more efficiently. Had the ability to manage our helpdesk staff for calls from both small business concerns and government components give me the ability to isolate issues that are being reported so that we can work to enhance the portals and have a more robust user experience.

During this time had the opportunity to spearhead a follow-on proposed contract for bringing the 4th Estate along with the 3 major components onto a single IT platform to manage all IT related needs for their SBIR/STTR related initiates. I led the brainstorming with the components POC's and helped with the writing of the proposal which we were awarded a $5 million 2 year award. This was a major success for the company in addition to providing a need/solution to 13 military components.

Senior Business Analyst/QA Tester Export-Import Bank of the United States Oct 2014- Jun 2015

Developed new electronic content management system (eCMS) involving the migration of a 20+ year legacy applications program involving various financing protocols utilizing Agile methodologies. Led meetings with various departments to gather requirements for the new platform for interfacing with other application for a seamless process workflow. Acted as a key team representative with vendors in determining new software for development of the new application interface. Acted as a quality assurance (QA) test lead for documentation and review of all test cases, testing criteria and acceptance criteria for the new eCMS. Documented and maintained all user stories, development requirements within JIRA and Rational Clearcase. Created the initial Confluence site for communications and document management for team members. Created use cases, user stories, process flows, test plans, and test cases with and without requirements. Successfully advocated for Scrum methodology to implement agile processes within the client IT department.

IT Business Analyst/QA/ Agile Lead Council of Better Business Bureaus, Inc. May 2013- Aug 2014

Developed and implemented a new CMS involving current customer live chat into Zendesk. This new process created a ticketing system for submitting requests for new features, documenting defects and general questions used company-wide and for all BBBs. Performed in a Project Manager role as well as Business Analyst (Agile Lead) regarding the entire remodel of the Wise Giving Alliance website located at www.give.org . Initiated discussions and gathered requirements to migrate the Council's Consumer Blog from WordPress to the new EpiServer CMS environment. Acted as QA test lead for documentation and review of all test cases, testing criteria and acceptance criteria for the new bbb.org website. Documented and maintained all user stories, development requirements, and bugs within JIRA for all projects conducted by the Council IT Department. Maintained and updated Confluence site for maximum communications to include document warehousing and storage for Council IT staff. Spearheaded the optimization of Scrum methodology and Agile coaching within the client IT department. Created use cases, user stories, process flows, test plans, and test cases with and without requirements.

Business Analyst II/Tester FedBid, Inc. (Now Unison) Jan 2013- Apr 2013

Participated in meetings with stakeholders to elicit requirements for a new payment process for reverse auctions. Worked with client services to enhance the customer service portal. Developed documentation processes using business rules for working with government contracts. Served as an Agile Lead with cross-functional groups to gather and write detailed requirements documents using Agile mythologies. Facilitated Joint Application Development (JAD) sessions to include offshore contractors as well as local stakeholders. Tested web applications and documented results/defects. Participated in peer reviews for both requirements and testing initiatives.

Business Analyst/Tester BAE Systems, Inc. Oct 2011- Sept 2012

Participated in overhauling multiple company intranets including One Space, which added widgets such as Twitter, team/department sites, Facebook, employee benefits, and PeopleSoft attributes. Worked on human resource project updating Employee statics and benefits using PeopleSoft. Engaged in manual testing of upgrades made to the HR portal upgrade project using PeopleSoft. Worked on Capabilities Catalogue, incorporating intellectual and physical assets for proposal documentation. Migrated projects from MOSS 2007 to SharePoint 2010, and conducted Oracle (R12) database migration. Established and maintained Next Labs International Security Standards for internal applications.

Modified Solumina/FITS (Factory Invoice Tracking System), COTS (commercial off the shelf), completed gap analysis to customize for BAE. For this project, utilized Blueprint for Requirements management and HP Quality Center to manage test documentation and defects. Trained associates to utilize Blueprint as a central repository. Maintained all requirements in Blueprint, pushed, imported, exported as needed within version SR6. Took training in Blueprint Web version and began migration of projects. Spearheaded the standardization of utilizing the Agile Methodology and coached/trained team members for the requirements documents as templates for software requirements process to be implemented across the entire corporation. Created use cases, test plans, and test cases with and without requirements. Created user stories and helped implement agile practices in specific projects.

Senior Business Analyst/Realtor Jobin Realty 2002-May 2011

Harvested business rules from systems and business artifacts and developed business systems documentation for decision-makers at large government agencies or similar-sized organizations. Developed work products using recognized business rules or requirements frameworks. Served as a liaison with cross-functional groups to gather and write detailed requirements documents. Facilitated JAD sessions with cross-functional groups to obtain detailed requirements and buy-in. Contributed in the creation of the Jobin Realty Intranet to be used by all affiliated offices, agents, managers and brokers. Tested web applications and documented results/defects. Translated stakeholder requirements into various documentation deliverables such as functional specifications, use cases, user stories, workflow/process diagrams, and data flow/data model diagrams. Implementing the Agile collaboration process with developers and product management to ensure product functionality meets defined customer requirements. Incrementally verified requirements through user testing. Assisted the product team in conducting user acceptance testing, and training end users. Participated in peer reviews and inspections of requirements work carried out by others on the team to ensure they were correctly interpreted.

Junior Analyst Ketron, Inc. 1997-2002

Acted as weapon analyst to assist team with proposals to bid on contracts for the Department of Defense (DoD). Built relationships to work closely with the businesses and clients. Created professional presentations based on the data, issue, and progress. Demonstrated experience of making decisions quickly and be responsive. Formulated and defined systems scope and objectives through research and fact-finding combined with an understanding of applicable business systems and industry requirements.

Junior Analyst First American Bank of Virginia 1995-1997

Analyst in the credit department; developed requirement documents based on project owner's input, to include functional requirements. Handled multiple administrative activities that include due diligence, credit verification analysis, documentation, and assistance in documenting the process of securing financing, cash flow modeling, return projections, and risk assessment valuations for both short and long-term forecasts.

CERTIFICATIONS

Certified SAFe 4 Agilest

Certified SAFe 5 PM/PO (Project Manager/Project Owner)

Certified SAFe 5 Advanced Scrum Master

Product Management Professional (PMP) Working on certification

SKILLS & SOFTWARE

Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio, Lync), JIRA, Confluence, Trello, Snag IT, HP Quality Center, Blueprint, SharePoint (2007, 2010), MS SQL Server 2008, Oracle R12 Database (Migration), EpiServer, SAP CRM, Agile, Rapid Application Development (RAD), Program Management, Use cases/diagrams, Process/Data/Workflows.

EDUCATION

Northern Virginia Community College, Business Administration Ongoing

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